Through Different Eyes
by FireEthereal
Summary: An Explosion at GD causes Jo to see things from a different perspective than before.   Set post "I'll be Seeing You" s04e09, discounting all episodes after.
1. Prologue

**Through Different Eyes**

**_Prologue_**

"…Zane?"

"I'm right here, Jo," Her breathing was shallow, her voice was weak, and she sounded scared. He was scared too. _Come on somebody, find us!_ He pressed a little harder against the wound, and prayed it was doing something. He couldn't tell anymore, there was so much blood. "Stay with me, Jo," _and please don't lose consciousness again_.

"…Zane…" He was fairly sure she had no idea anymore what was going on. She was drifting in and out so much now. "… it was awful…"

"What was awful?" _Just keep her talking, _he told himself.

"I…we… we got stuck in the past, and then everything was different when we came back…" Her words took him by surprise. He'd been trying to get her to explain that for weeks and she'd been avoiding him since that kiss in Carter's office. It scared him. If she was telling him this now it only emphasised how quickly she was fading on him. "I'm sorry…"

Zane could feel himself fighting back tears, "Don't be sorry" _Come on Jo, just stay with me._

"…I … I'm sorry I didn't give you an answer… it was so awful. You were there, but it wasn't you…" _Shit, _he could feel her pulse was weakening and there was more halting in her speech. _Come on people! _Someone had to be looking for them. There was no way Jo could missing in a crisis and it go unnoticed. "…it wasn't you…" She was crying.

Zane took one hand from where he was holding the pressure and touched her cheek, not worrying that his fingers were wet with blood. "I'm here now, Jo-Jo," he whispered. He was losing her, the tears he'd been fighting broke free and slipped down his own cheeks. "Please stay with me."

"…I miss you so much, Zane… I wanted … wanted you back so bad…" He took her hand and squeezed it hard, while pressing the other one as firmly as he could into the blood soaked clothes on her abdomen. "… it hurt so much ... to see you…"

He kissed her forehead, "I'm not going anywhere now, just stay with me."

She coughed, then drew in a struggling breath. _Shit._ He squeezed tighter, pressed firmer, and closed his eyes as he rested his head against hers, lying down next to her and holding her against him. _Come on, please! _

Everything seemed to slow down. There was nothing else he could do. He felt her give a weak squeeze back on his hand, then she went still. "Jo?" _No, no, no, no, no, no._ "JO!"


	2. Shockwave

**Notes:**

So this story probably embodies a lot of what I hate in fanfic. Its totally driven by the characters getting together and not the rest of the plot, but it came into my head and once I started it was basically writing itself so I just went with it and had some fun.

Thanks you for all the reviews on the prologue. Please review this new chapters. I enjoy knowing what people think.

**Disclaimers:**

1) I hold no ownership over Eureka nor any parts of its makeup.

2) My medical knowledge is limited and my time frames might be a little skewed from reality.

3) This is a shippy fan story and might be slightly lacking in plot depth. I hope that you will read it anyway and still enjoy it.

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Shockwave**

_2 Hours Earlier…_

Zane turned the ring over and over in his hands. His ring. His grandmother's ring. Jo had avoided him since he'd kissed her in Carter's office, and he didn't blame her. Not really. Whatever the story behind all this was, it was big, and if it was what he thought then there were some huge penalties if ever got out. That didn't still his curiosity though. There was more between them they she was willing to admit, and damnit he wanted her to admit it! Sure he'd pieced most of it together, but that wasn't the same as hearing it from her. What was she so afraid of?

He sighed and slid the ring back into his pocket. Brooding over it wasn't going to help. He had work to do. He turned his attention back to his laptop and ran through the specs on the screen again looking for the flaw. A suddenly rattling of a pipe over head made him jump, and he laughed at himself. That was the price you paid for privacy. One of the nice things about working at Global Dynamics was that it was huge, and finding an empty tucked away corridor was easy if you knew where to look. Sure it wasn't as comfortable as a private lab, but it was the next best thing sometimes, especially when working with Parrish got on his nerves. Right now he didn't need equipment, he just needed room to think.

Now if only he could thinking about his experiment instead of the enigma of Josephina Lupo. Deadlines were staring him in the face and he was having a hell of a time trying to make himself care about them. In a matter of a few weeks she'd managed to completely throw him off his game with her sudden changes in behavior, and it was messing with him bad. He cursed himself when he realized that here he was STILL thinking about her. Damn that woman!

"What are you doing here?"_ Speak of the devil, _he thought as he looked up to find the object of his aggravation standing in front of him. More of an angel than a devil though. Even with that death-glare on her face she still looked amazing.

"Well I was working til you interrupted."

"In a hallway, in a dark unused corner of GD?" she was clearly skeptical, "what are you hiding? Dirty pictures or something?"

"For your information I just needed some space." It amazed him how she could manage to bring out the worst in him sometimes. She was on edge and he immediately responded in kind, meeting her defensiveness with his own without thinking. "Why are you down here?" Though he tried to calm his tone, it still came out harshly, and he could tell that it phased her, even though she acted like it didn't. There was a moment of reaction on her face, then she hid it quickly.

"The system picked up an anomalous reading, I came to check it out, and here I find you. Why am I not surprised?"

"Hey, don't start with me!" So much for trying to stay calm, "All I'm doing is reading through design specs on my laptop. Not everything that goes wrong around here is my fault!" She glared at him, and he glared back. This was going no where. With great effort he forced himself to still his 'fight' response. "Look, Lupo," There was still an edge to his voice but he'd managed to tone it down a bit, "You don't want to talk to me, I don't want to talk to you. If I help you track down your anomaly, then we can both go back to being alone."

She was hesitant, and did not look happy about the idea, but she relented "Fine!"

"Fine," He reached out for the data pad she was carrying, "Can see what you are following?" She let him take it. _Good, _he scanned through the information, _maybe this won't be too difficult... wait! That can't be right_, he scrolled back up the page. Oh this was not good.

... ... ... ... ...

She watched his face as he read over the information. This was not her day. Of all the people to run into in GD he was the absolute last person she's wanted to see. She's done a fairly good job of avoiding him, until now. The universe must be against her or something. At least she took solace in the fact that he seemed just as irritate at running into her. She hoped that meant he wasn't going to start cornering her for information again. She could not take that today. It was bad enough that GD was spitting out bizzare energy readings at her. Normally she wouldn't follow that up on her own but an out of the way area of unused labs had felt like a good idea at the time. Less chance that way, or so she had thought at least, of unwanted company.

"What's wrong?" Zane's face had changed from a look of mild annoyance to one of serious concern.

"Why hasn't it..." He looked around as if he could find the answer in the air then when back to the tablet, "This can't be right."

"What is it?" He didn't seem to even hear her.

"That should have triggered... So why didn't... How is that even possible... " His half sentences were both irritating and distressing.

"What the hell is it?" Her almost yelling finally got his attention, and he looked up.

"It's bad." He glanced down again for a second and winced, "and its getting worse. We need to get out of here, NOW." She didn't dare argue with him, she could tell he was serious. He grabbed his stuff and practically shoved her down the hallway. "It doesn't make sense, this should have triggered a fail safe," he said as they started to run.

"What is it?"

"Massive energy build ups all over. The system should have detected them and stopped them from getting so large, but the failsafes never kicked in. Alarms should be blaring right now." He was calculating mentally as they ran, at the rate it was building... He grabbed Jo's arm and pulled her to a startling halt.

"What?"

"There isn't enough time," He yanked her to the side of the corridor and began messing with a door panel. He just had to by-pass the security system...

"Enough time for what?"

"Time to get out," He worked quickly to hack the door to the unused lab, "This whole section is shut down labs and decommissioned projects. There's charge is building in a reactor of some kind down there and when it blows its going to send a massive shockwave down this hallway. We need to get out of its path. HA!" The door slid open, Zane stepped inside and pulling Jo in behind him.

The door never got a chance to close. They were barely inside when the explosion shook the whole area, and less than a heart beat later a force like a tidal wave slammed into them from behind. As Zane was thrown through the air and crushed against the far wall, he cursed himself that he hadn't calculated thier need for shelter that much faster. He fell to the floor and everything went black.


	3. Waiting Game

**Notes: **

Appearently this system automatically took out my mid-chapter division marks. There was a little "~~~" at the POV change, but appearently a line with no punctuation gets removed. I've fixed this now in the last chapter and this one. Basically aside from the prologue, each chapter has two parts, which I would have made individual chapters, but they seemed way too short that way.

I know that medically this chapter is probably very unsound. I wrote it while avoiding studying for my anatomy and physiology exams though so I really didn't want to wack my brain over the physiological details of the injuries. Also I tried to work out the way Zane is sitting in my head and it worked, but from my description the way he's positioned through out this might not make sense.

**Disclaimers:**

_Please refer to disclaimers on Chapter 1_

**_Please Review and Give feedback, I enjoy reading peoples thoughts about this :)_  
**

* * *

**Chapter 2 -Waiting Game  
**

Zane blinked as he slowly came around he felt like he'd been run over. It took him a few minutes to regain he senses then he remembered what happened. Not run over, blown up. He groaned as he tried to move. The lights were flashing red and he could here the repetitive tone of the alarm in the background. _Oh sure NOW it works._ He pulled himself up into a sitting position against the wall and assessed things. He'd hit that wall pretty hard. His head was pounding so concussion, maybe, and broken ribs, _Ow, _yep pretty sure he had broken ribs. He didn't dare trying to get to his feet, his leg was throbbing pretty bad too. He didn't think it was actually broken, probably just bruised but better not to chance it. He didn't look down though as his eyes were drawn to the room.

The lab was a mess. Things sparking, wires hanging, it looked like your typical exploded lab. He sincerely hoped the beam that was down through the center of the room was meant for aesthetics and hadn't been weight bearing. The shockwave must have packed quite some force to knock it out of place. At the center of things was the remains of some kind of glass chamber shattered in the explosion, its shards spread out to the side opposite the door.

"Lupo?" Silence. "JO?" _Ow._ Ok it hurt a little to yell. Definitely some broken ribs. She wasn't answering. He scanned the room again, looking for anything that she might be behind. Then he saw her. _Shit_. She was crumpled against the wall almost out of sight.

He pulled himself across the floor to her side. She was still unconscious but what concerned him was the blood pooled around her. He unzipped the hoodie he was wearing and shrugged his way out of it, then removed the dress shirt he had on over his t-shirt, thankful that he'd dressed in layers today. Tearing shirt he wadded up some material and pressed it against the gash on her forehead. After a few seconds he pulled it back, realizing that it wasn't actually bleeding that badly_. _So where was all the blood from? Very gently he rolled her from her side onto her back. _Shit._ She moaned and started to come around as he took the hoodie and pressed into into her abdomen to try and stop the bleeding.

"Hey Jo," He whispered as her eyes fluttered opened, "don't try to move." Pain was written across her face.

"What... happened?" There was a whimper between the words as she didn't heed his warning.

"Lie still! I think some debris from the explosion caught you in the stomach."

"Everything's spinning."

"Yeah. You hit your head and you're losing a lot of blood. The alarms are going now, so help should be coming." He hoped he was right. He had no idea how long he'd been out or how much they had to clear through to get to them. He wasn't sure anyone even knew they were down here. For all he knew everyone might be preoccupied trying to deal with the other results of the power surge. GD's system should show that they were there, but than again the system should have been sounding alarms before the surge had built big enough to cause explosions. "Just hang in there, Jo."

... ... ... ... ...

Minutes felt like hours and he had no idea how long it had been. Jo had lost consciousness again and he wasn't feeling so hot himself. The hoodie he had pressed into her wound was drenched with blood, but he didn't know what else to do other than keep the pressure there. The alarms had gone quiet and the lights were now a solid red. He wasn't sure whether or not to consider that a good sign. He hoped it meant that they were getting the problem sorted out. Communication seemed to be out, at least to this lab, but then again this lab wasn't supposed to be operational anyway.

His mind was fuzzy, from the concussion probably, and he strained to remember what he's seen in the data before the blast. There had been power surges building up all across GD. This one had probably alerted Jo as it had been in an unused section and registered as an unknown security threat, the others should have set off alarms. It didn't make sense why they hadn't, in other circumstances he would probably be the one working on that problem.

Jo moaned softly.

"Hey," he tried to keep the worry out of his voice, "Welcome back." She gave him a small weak smile, and he wondered whether it was sincere or forced. Her eyes were screaming how much pain she was really in. She was hanging on, barely.

"I'm so cold" She whispered.

All Zane could do was nod, "Your body's in shock. I don't have anything to help keep you warm." He scanned the room, hoping there would be something, but there was nothing in sight and he didn't dare leave her. The pressure had slowed the bleeding from her abdomen, or at least it seemed like it, letting up would only cause her to bleed more, and he wasn't sure her body could handle any more loss. As it was he was pretty sure it was only managing the loss it had because she was lying down and staying still. He shifted position so that his body was closer to her, hoping that maybe his body heat would help a little. It must have made some difference because she relaxed visibly and rested her head against him.

"Thank you..."

"Did that help?" He wasn't sure if she was thanking him for the heat or just being there.

"A little... Zane?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think anyone's going to come?" It was a question that he hadn't wanted to think about. Jo needed help now, even if the pressure he was applying was slowing the bleeding there, he was pretty sure that she was probably bleeding internally as well. He could keep her company but he didn't have the skill to do much else, and if she didn't get medical attention soon she wasn't going to make it. Surely it would be noticed that they were missing, but there would have been explosions all across GD, most likely they were not the only ones needing help.

"They'll come. You're too important not to be missed." Inwardly he was wishing that there was something, anything, he could say right now to makes things, but there wasn't. "Just in hang in there, they'll come." He hoped that he sounded convincing to her, because he really wasn't to himself. _They'll come, but will they get here before it's too late?_


	4. Parallax

**Notes: **

This chapter brings us back to where the prologue left us. There's one more after this. Thank you to everyone who has given reviews, especially Sydnew who has been very kind to give detailed feedback on each chapter.

PLEASE REVIEW! I'll put the next chapter up quicker if I get more feedback :)

**Disclaimers:**

_Please refer to disclaimers on Chapter 1_

* * *

**Chapter 3 -Parallax**

He felt numb. He wasn't sure if it was because he'd been sitting there so long without moving or if he was in shock as well. Probably a little of both. Jo was out again, and she looked almost peaceful with her eyes closed. In any other circumstances he would be thinking about how she was sleeping in his arms, but he was too worried right now to even consider that. He knew she was growing weaker by the second. He was growing weaker too, but he didn't care about himself. Any pain he felt was being pushed aside by the need to stay with her.

He shifted to try and get some feeling back and slid a little closer to her so that her head was nestled against him with his arms around either side. It wasn't quite what he meant to do and made for an awkward position, but he didn't think he could manage to maneuver himself much better. The motion must of jostled her a bit because she started to moan and come around again.

"…Zane?"

"I'm right here, Jo," Her breathing was shallow, her voice was weak, and she sounded scared. He was scared too. _Come on somebody, find us!_ He pressed a little harder against the wound, and prayed it was doing something. He couldn't tell anymore, there was so much blood. "Stay with me, Jo," _and please don't lose consciousness again_.

"…Zane…" He was fairly sure she had no idea anymore what was going on. She was drifting in and out so much now. "… it was awful…"

"What was awful?" _Just keep her talking, _he told himself.

"I…we… we got stuck in the past, and then everything was different when we came back…" Her words took him by surprise. He'd been trying to get her to explain that for weeks and she'd been avoiding him since that kiss in Carter's office. It scared him. If she was telling him this now it only emphasised how quickly she was fading on him. "I'm sorry…"

Zane could feel himself fighting back tears, "Don't be sorry" _Come on Jo, just stay with __me._

"…I … I'm sorry I didn't give you an answer… it was so awful. You were there, but it wasn't you…" _Shit, _he could feel her pulse was weakening and there was more halting in her speech. _Come on people! _Someone had to be looking for them. There was no way Jo could missing in a crisis and it go unnoticed. "…it wasn't you…" She was crying.

Zane took one hand from where he was holding the pressure and touched her cheek, not worrying that his fingers were wet with blood. "I'm here now, Jo-Jo," he whispered. He was losing her, the tears he'd been fighting broke free and slipped down his own cheeks. "Please stay with me."

"…I miss you so much, Zane… I wanted … wanted you back so bad…" He took her hand and squeezed it hard, while pressing the other one as firmly as he could into the blood soaked clothes on her abdomen. "… it hurt so much ... to see you…"

He kissed her forehead, "I'm not going anywhere now, just stay with me."

She coughed, then drew in a struggling breath. _Shit._ He squeezed tighter, pressed firmer, and closed his eyes as he rested his head against hers, lying down next to her and holding her against him. _Come on, please! _

Everything seemed to slow down. There was nothing else he could do. He felt her give a weak squeeze back on his hand, then she went still. "Jo?" _No, no, no, no, no, no._ "JO!"

Hands took hold of him and pulled him away from her in his struggle to get up.

"Take it easy, Zane." He had no idea when Allison had appeared there. He hadn't heard the door open, but his attention had been on Jo not anything else. She was pulling him away to give her team room to work. He watched them in daze as they shouted back and forth between one another his mind not able to process the words. It all felt unreal. Were they really here? Had they really made it in time? Or was this his mind playing some sick and twisted joke on him?

"Zane! Look at me." Allison was shining a light into his eyes, "Let them worry about Jo. You did good, she's still alive. Now look here." Reluctantly Zane pulled his attention away from the slow moving chaos and tried to focus on the light. Now that Jo was out of his hands the weight of his own injuries was setting in.

"You definitely have a concussion. Do you feel dizzy?" Did he? He wasn't sure. He couldn't get his mind to focus, all he could think about was Jo. Was she going to make it?

"Zane?" He nodded slowly. Dizzy? maybe. Foggy? yeah. He closed his eyes, he wanted to lie down. Everything started to fade.

As he slipped into unconsciousness he could faintly hear Allison calling for some help.

... ... ... ... ...

The first thing he did upon waking in the infirmary was try to get up. Someone must have counted on that because he quickly found out he was restrained. It only took him a few minutes to work his way out of the restraints but it was enough to slow him down and give someone time to get there.

"Where is she?" The words came out of his mouth with him even really thinking about it the moment Allison appeared.

"She's just coming out of surgery. Sit down I want to check you out." He obliged her and sat back down on the bed, but letting her examine him was another story.

"Is she alright?"

"She's stable at the moment, we'll know more when she wakes up." She was shining a light into his eyes again. He hated when doctors did that. "Do you feel dizzy at all?" He shook his head "Good. Last time I asked you that you blacked out." She picked up a tablet and started pressing things, "You've got a few broken ribs, but don't seem to have any internal bleeding. You gashed your leg pretty bad too, but thanks to GD technology you won't even have a scar."

"And Jo?"

"You aren't going to let up on that, are you?" Again Zane shook his head. Allison sighed and pulled up a chair. "Jo's injuries were severe. From what we can tell she was thrown forward through the glass chamber in the lab. Several shards from it impaled her. There was massive internal damage. You kept her from bleeding out, but she also sustained a bad head injury that hasn't helped things. We repaired the internal damage damage and the swelling in her brain seems to be coming down, but its still iffy on when she's going to regain consciousness. She's stable right now, but the next 24 hour are going to be critical."

"Can I see her?"

He could see the hesitation in her body language as she answered. "They really could use your help with getting GD's systems fixed, but somehow I get the feeling that you aren't going to be interested in that."

Zane didn't even bother to answer that. There was only one thing on his mind. "Please. Can I see her?"

Allison nodded in understanding, "I'll take you to her "

"Thank you."

As soon as he was at Jo's bedside he sat down and took her hand. He had no intention of being anywhere else right now. Unless she woke up and told him to leave he was staying. Machines hummed and beeped around them with various tubes and wires running between her and them, but he scarcely noticed them. His eyes were fixed on her face. _You've made this far Jo-jo, please pull through. _

Allison moved to leave him alone with her, but he stopped her. "Allison?" he said quietly tearing his eyes away from Jo and looking up, "When did I give her the ring?" He hesitated it was clear that she had neither expected that question nor wanted to discuss it, but he needed to an answer, "You know, before things... changed. When I did I give it to her?"


	5. Retrospect

**Notes: **

This is tentatively the last chapter. I could do an epilogue, but I'm thinking of leaving it here. I do have ideas I'm working on for a follow up story. (2 of them actually) still working that out, and not sure I'll be able to find the time while with my family over Christmas. Finding the time to proof and post this chapter was hard enough.

I think my timing of things is a little messed up, from where things sat in "I'll be Seeing You". I needed Zoe to be out of Euerka for where I want things to go. So I'm not sure if she's back at school (which was my original thought, but doesn't really make sense with the timing of things from the episodes) or if I'm going to work out a better explanation. It plays more into the next story than it does this one though.

Read, enjoy, and review, and thank you to everyone who gave feedback on the last chapter!

**Disclaimers:**

_Please refer to disclaimers on Chapter 1_

* * *

**Chapter 4 -Retrospect**

At first she just heard voices; faint, distant, and indistinguishable. They were talking softly and seemed far away, then they started to grow clearer. Bright lights assaulted her as she slowly opened her eyes. The intensity made her head spin. Then the pain hit her. Sharp, intense pain throughout her body. She whimpered involuntarily.

"Hey, welcome back." Allison moved from where she and Jack were talking at the foot of the bed and came to check her vitals. "Don't try to move," she said feeling her pulse, even though the numbers were on the screen. Jo didn't think she could even if she wanted to. "I'm going to give you something for the pain, ok?" Jo gave a slight nod.

It took few minutes for the meds to take effect, but once they did Jo was able to find her voice, "What happened?" It was barely a whisper. Her mouth felt dry and the words seemed to take so much effort to form.

"You got caught in an explosion, do you remember?" Jo nodded slowly. Allison was sitting on the edge of the bed on one side and Carter had come around to stand behind her, his hands on her shoulders. They were looking at her like a pair of concerned parents.

"Zane..."

Allison nodded, "He kept you alive."

"Where is..."

She smiled and pulled back the divider curtain next to them to reveal Zane curled up on the next bed fast asleep. He had exhausted himself staying with her. It had dried and darkened but there was still blood on his clothes. They hadn't been able to get him to leave long enough to change. They wouldn't even have gotten him to rest if Allison hadn't managed to insist that he lie down under threat of sedating him.

"I don't know what you said to him, but you've been out for 3 days and he hasn't left your side."

Jo struggled for words, "I thought he... I couldn't..."

"Its alright." Carter circled around to her other side and took her hand as he sat down for minute. "It's ok, Jo, you don't have to explain. We know what happened, and he knows what happened. We've talked about it. Its ok." He swept the hair off her face then leaned over and kissed her forehead, making her feel even more like a child in a way that was comforting. "You get some sleep. Glad to have you back." He gave Allison a quick kiss then left to call Zoe and let her know how Jo was doing.

"You were lucky down there," Allison said quietly, "If Zane hadn't been with you, we wouldn't have gotten there in time. It was close as it was. He didn't even realize how badly he was bleeding himself because he was so focused on saving you. We almost lost you both."

Jo looked past her to where Zane was sleeping, her thoughts swirling. He wasn't the same Zane she'd dated for 2 years and who had proposed to her, but he wasn't an entirely different person either. She didn't get very far along this train of thought before Zane was stirred by the sound of the voices. He was on his feet the moment he saw that Jo was awake. Allison moved aside to give him room to sit, and quietly checked the things that she needed to on the monitors.

"Hey Jo-Jo," He said softly as he sat down and smoothed her hair. He kissed her forehead in a slow and gentle motion. Coming from Carter it had felt like a paternal gesture, but coming from Zane it was completely different. Zane's touch made her feel safe and protected. "You scared the hell out of me," he whispered in her ear as he drew back. She curled her fingers around the hand that had taken hold of holding hers. His other was still on her face, stroking her cheek gently. For a little while she just studied him. He'd saved her life. She didn't really remember clearly. She could only remember the pain and the fear, and mistaking him for her Zane. How much had she said to him? Did it matter?

Even if he wasn't the same Zane, this man had noticed the change and sadness in her and had sought to understand it. Even when she'd pushed him off, he'd pressed to find out what was wrong. It was irritating but in some sense it was also endearing. He cared. He'd stayed by her side in that lab holding her and comforting her and not even thinking about himself, then didn't leave her the whole time she was unconscious. She missed the Zane that she know, but when she really thought about it she wasn't sure that she'd want to trade away this moment right now for that.

"What are you thinking about, Josephina."

She hesitated a moment not sure how to answer then gave him timid smile, "You." It came out barely above a whisper. Allison had slipped away leaving the two of them alone. Bracing herself against the pain, she tried to pull her self a little closer to him. Seeing what she was doing, he gently stopped her.

"Jo? Is it ok if I...? Can I...?"

She nodded at his hesitant question before he could find a way to finish it, "Yes."

He circled around to the other side of the bed, glancing out at the infirmary as he did to make sure no one was watching. He was pretty sure that this wouldn't be ok if he asked anyone for permission. He lay down next to her on the bed and very carefully pulled her into his arms.

It hurt a lot, and Jo knew that it probably wasn't the smartest or safest idea, but once she was settled against him there was no denying that the pain had been worth it to have him hold her. Just as she had responded to the kiss before in Carter's office, this too felt right.

Her eyelids growing heavy as the pain meds pulled her back into sleep and she was lulled by the rise and fall of Zane's breathing.


End file.
